S01.E04: Decisions, Decisions

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The bakers head back into the kitchen to take on a new delicious challenge; the best dessert detectives will move forward in the competition and the duo that falls short will head home.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I was so shocked!   No one got the first round dessert, including the Cheesecake specialist.    He must be so embarrassed. 

On at personal note, I really like the pink flowered tops on the one team, Leslie & Emma.   The blonde mother-daughter duo from Missouri need to stop bickering.  

The Croquembouche,  tower by the cream puff/cheesecake men was pathetic.   The bearded man and the wife with pink and blue hair dessert cone was falling over.   Hope and her partner really did an amazing job after the knee pop, and the caramel burn.   

 Rebecca & Jean doing a  Dacquoise  was a terrible guess, so they're going home.   I will not miss either one of them, the constant arguing from them was too much.    

I missed the name on the coffee cup. 

Edited June 17, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Angeleyes]

The first round should have been so easy for them. The potluck list clearly listed all the possibilities and even specified that only 1 fruit should be used in each dessert. Even if they didn’t notice the name on the coffee cup, the list plus the other clues should have narrowed it down for them to a cheesecake or tart. Coffee cake or galette was nowhere on the list. 
 

I’m surprised that none of the teams familiar with croquembouche knew to wrap spun sugar around the tower. I remember learning about it from Martha Stewart years ago and finding the process of creating the spun sugar nest thing fascinating. Apparently it was a dessert that was traditionally used for weddings instead of a cake in some parts of Europe. I’m happy for the team that won this round after the poor girl hurt her knee and burned her hand. I’m glad they were able to persevere.
 

The mother/daughter duo have been so clueless each week. I don’t know how they made it this far. It was time for them to go. 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Angeleyes

[DanaK]

Really fascinating how no one got the first dessert. I went back and forth on whether the coffee cup was important or a false clue. I didn’t anticipate it would be linked to the list. I also wasn’t paying enough attention to the list

Good choice to send the Missouri mother and daughter home. The mother was cranky and the daughter seemed really uptight and a big worrywart (though I’ve been like that at times) 

[Maverick]

The pie bakers clearly have a very narrow lane when it comes to desserts.  And then one of them hates fruit?  But runs a business built around pies and only pies?   Why did they apply to this show much less how did they get cast?

 The egg whites threw me in the second round.   It was supposed to indicate only the yolks were used, but it's not uncommon to buy/store the whites separate from each other.

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, Angeleyes said:

The first round should have been so easy for them. The potluck list clearly listed all the possibilities and even specified that only 1 fruit should be used in each dessert. Even if they didn’t notice the name on the coffee cup the list plus the other clues should have narrowed it down for them to a cheesecake or tart. Coffee cake or galette was nowhere on the list. 

Don't forget they only have 3 minutes to check out the kitchen.  Checking out things like what's in the garbage or the sink or the fridge is doable, cross-referencing the name on a coffee cup against a long potluck list is pushing it. 

I'm glad the pie people were sent home.  They were way out of their league, and the mom especially was not up for this type of competition.  (And I hate to say that because we're probable around the same age.)  I don't understand how you can make your living making pies but have so little frame of reference for other desserts. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

I'm sorry, but am I the only one who was practically screaming at the screen, "Look at the name on the damn coffee cup!"?

[mertensia]

You know, I'm fairly sure if I were going to be on this show I'd binge watch Great British Bake off and as much of America's Best Bakers as I could.

The sour cream threw me but as soon as they uncovered cream cheese I was saying mango cheesecake.

I got croquembouche, too! Though my first guess was a dacquoise.

Pie ladies were cringy to watch; they were so lost. 

 

 

[Maya]

6 hours ago, The Crazed Spruce said:

I'm sorry, but am I the only one who was practically screaming at the screen, "Look at the name on the damn coffee cup!"?

I was screaming - look at the sign up sheet full of desserts!

I immediately thought of cheesecake when I saw the sour cream and cream cheese. But cheesecake uses like 4 blocks of cream cheese and looked like there was only one wrapper. Maybe that’s what the cheesecake guys were thinking too. 

[tinkerbell]

The team that went home never really grasped the way the clues were supposed to be used. If there are egg shells, and the egg whites in the fridge, they think, "they want us to use egg whites." They're supposed to think "the whites are left, they used the yolks."  Same with the fruit. Just because there are strawberries on the counter, don't assume they were used in the dessert.

[blackwing]

I don't know much about baking, but even I thought it was a mango cheesecake after seeing the sour cream and cream cheese.  These are teams of bakers, they should have had it easily.  At least mango tart is in the ballpark, but gallette, and most inexplicably, coffee cake?  I missed the name on the coffee cup but I did note that it was clean.  There were no remnants of coffee at all in it.  If coffee had been used, we would have seen some drips of it or some left over.  I also thought the list was important since we haven't seen anything like that before so I would have made sure to look at it.  In fact, I probably would have thought it was some kind of puzzle and would have spent way too much time analyzing it, like taking the first letters of each line or something.

The croquembush seems like a complicated dessert, but since 4 out of 5 teams got it, the clues must not have been that hard.  I love that Shania and Hope won... their dessert looked the best without using a cone in the middle.  But I realise that there is no advantage to winning, is there?  I would think winning the day should give them at least some advantage in the next opening round, like maybe one extra minute in the crime scene or something.

I really like three of the teams in this half... Shania and Hope, Cory and his partner, and the girl who looks like she could be a forest elf and her mom in their matching floral blouses.  The rainbow hair girl and her husband make little impression on me.

12 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

 Rebecca & Jean doing a  Dacquoise  was a terrible guess, so they're going home.   I will not miss either one of them, the constant arguing from them was too much.    

The mom was a cranky sourpuss with a constant sourpuss expression on her face, it was like she was playing a cartoon character.  Won't miss them at all.

 

[tinkerbell]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

I don't know much about baking, but even I thought it was a mango cheesecake after seeing the sour cream and cream cheese. 

From what I saw, the sour cream container was visible in the trash, and the cream cheese wrapper was under it.  taking a quick look in the trash only gave one clue, the team who rifled through the trash a little saw the cream cheese wrapper.  

I really like this show.   It's a little absurd, with the detective part of it being more important than the baking part, throwing the contestants off their game.  And the host adds to it by not taking anything seriously, so it's a very different tone than something like "America's best Baker." 

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

I missed the name on the coffee cup but I did note that it was clean.  There were no remnants of coffee at all in it.  If coffee had been used, we would have seen some drips of it or some left over.

Coffee cake doesn't contain coffee. 

[Chyromaniac]

There is very little I’ve wished for more in recent days, than to see a croquembouche emerge from that dry ice fog.  Ye gods, those pie ladies were exhausting.  I think the younger woman must have some skill to pull off a quality dacquoise- but does the other lady, like, handle their billing or something?

11 hours ago, blackwing said:

I missed the name on the coffee cup but I did note that it was clean. 

I didn’t catch enough details on either the cup or list to see what the details were - but I suspected that was going to be the connection.  It’s ironic that the challenge where the answer was (at least partially) written down, was the one that nobody got.

[loki310]

Okay so does anyone have any rule of thumb strategies for making the most of the 3 minutes?

I’d head to the sink, the trash, and search for anything with writing - the stencils, the H at 14 inches on the tape measure, the potluck sheet... Patterns are also key (like the cannoli).  Meanwhile partner looks in fridge, counters. The writing clues have been key.
 

[tennisgurl]

I'm glad the baking mother/daughter team went home, the mom seemed exhausting. She seemed so miserable and pissed off all the time, and they were just not getting the crime scene aspect of the show. It was hilarious when no one got the cheese cake right, even the cheese cake guy! Come on guys, cream cheese! I guess it just being one thing of cheese cake threw them off, but still. 

I am still really liking the show, and Joel as host. "Is there any show he wont host?" 

[tinkerbell]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I'm glad the baking mother/daughter team went home, the mom seemed exhausting. She seemed so miserable and pissed off all the time, and they were just not getting the crime scene aspect of the show. It was hilarious when no one got the cheese cake right, even the cheese cake guy! Come on guys, cream cheese! I guess it just being one thing of cheese cake threw them off, but still. 

I am still really liking the show, and Joel as host. "Is there any show he wont host?" 

I saw at least one team look in the trash, and see the sour cream.  and then one team reached into the trash and moved stuff around and saw the cream cheese.  So I'm guessing some teams never saw it.  I think the other clue - that parchment paper with the circle of grease -  steered them away from cheese cake, they were trying to figure out what was baked on the paper.  

So, it was pretty difficult, really. Once someone guess cheesecake, they'd also have to guess that the crust wasn't traditional graham cracker, but a cookie crust, and the figure out what kind of cookie.

[eel21788]

43 minutes ago, tinkerbell said:

I saw at least one team look in the trash, and see the sour cream.  and then one team reached into the trash and moved stuff around and saw the cream cheese.  So I'm guessing some teams never saw it.  I think the other clue - that parchment paper with the circle of grease -  steered them away from cheese cake, they were trying to figure out what was baked on the paper.  

So, it was pretty difficult, really. Once someone guess cheesecake, they'd also have to guess that the crust wasn't traditional graham cracker, but a cookie crust, and the figure out what kind of cookie.

The absence of a spring-form pan also made me second guess whether or not it was a cheesecake.

[Quilt Fairy]

The fact that there are "red herrings" among the clues makes it even harder.  

[Whimsy]

On 6/17/2021 at 8:33 AM, Maya said:

I was screaming - look at the sign up sheet full of desserts!

I immediately thought of cheesecake when I saw the sour cream and cream cheese. But cheesecake uses like 4 blocks of cream cheese and looked like there was only one wrapper. Maybe that’s what the cheesecake guys were thinking too. 

 

19 hours ago, eel21788 said:

The absence of a spring-form pan also made me second guess whether or not it was a cheesecake.

I have a small side baking business. I got an AMAZING cheesecake recipe from the Culinary Institute of America from when my daughter went there. The recipe only calls for one block of cream cheese and we don’t bake our cheesecakes in a springform pan. What completely threw me was the parchment paper. I couldn’t figure out how that tied in. 
 

I immediately guessed croquembush from those clues. I thought it was way too easy. 
 

I am so glad the pie bakers are gone. Good for them for creating a successful (I’m assuming) pie business, but they had no business being on this show. They knew basically nothing about any other desserts and they were very unpleasant to watch. 

[tinkerbell]

23 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

The fact that there are "red herrings" among the clues makes it even harder.  

BUt the red herrings are still clues, they're things that were NOT used.    Like -  the pie pans, not being used when the dessert was Boston Cream Pie -  Pie pans, but not used, means its NOT a pie.   (but its called a pie)   Also the unused tart pan when the dessert was lemon tart flavored eclairs, also pointed to  NOT a tart.  (but an eclair that is  modeled after a tart) .  The vegetables, in the carrot cake dessert, were not to be used IN the dessert, but they indicated the decorations on TOP of the dessert.  I don't recall any red herrings that were purposely set up to lead the bakers in the wrong direction.  Maybe I missed it ? 

[Quilt Fairy]

I see your point, but to me some of those things - like an unused pie pan means it's not a pie - are the kind of negative clues that seem obvious when someone is explaining them to you after the fact, but are meant to be deceiving in the heat of the moment. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Quilt Fairy

[blackwing]

On 6/19/2021 at 5:00 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

I see your point, but to me some of those things - like an unused pie pan means it's not a pie - are the kind of negative clues that seem obvious when someone is explaining them to you after the fact, but are meant to be deceiving in the heat of the moment. 

I have no issues with the red herrings, and I would think the contestants are aware of them by now and know not to get sidetracked by them.  So if they see a pie pan with the label still attached, or a full box of raspberries in the fridge with the rubber band still on it, it seems clear now that is an indication that these items were not used.

It would have been nice if we had heard a specific instruction from Joel in the very first episode however.  Something like "be aware that there are some clues that are deliberate red herrings".

[Lisapooh]

I couldn't believe no one got cheesecake. I mean, what did they think that weird potluck list was? Have they never been to an escape room?! Like dig a little deeper people. 

I think every baking competition show does a croquembushe at some point, so this one was no surprise, Pate chow and a measurement indicating a tall structure. That's most of what you need.

This episode didn't hold my attention as much as the others. I had my own massive baking project underway. Russian honey cake...thank you very much! 

But I'm still digging it. 

[tinkerbell]

6 hours ago, Lisapooh said:

I think every baking competition show does a croquembushe at some point, so this one was no surprise, Pate chow and a measurement indicating a tall structure. That's most of what you need.

Pâte à choux     -   means Choux pastry

 

 

[Lisapooh]

Well I didn’t mean to type in chow. That’s probably an auto correct but as I said last week I know how to make it but don’t know how to spell it. 🙂

[tinkerbell]

3 hours ago, Lisapooh said:

Well I didn’t mean to type in chow. That’s probably an auto correct but as I said last week I know how to make it but don’t know how to spell it. 🙂

Yes, I had no idea how to spell it, so I looked it up, and then had to copy and paste so I got the little accents in correctly.